Bring the Hero Myth Alive Right Now, Right Where You Are Entering the Dark Forest of the Psyche: Going Down Into Our Unconscious Depths “Each entered the Forest Adventurous at the point which he himself had chosen, where it was darkest and there was no way or path.” The Quest For the Holy Grail – Anonymous 13th Century monk Once we cross the threshold into the mythic realm of adventure, moving beyond the threshold guardians at the boundary of the safety and familiarity, we must leave behind a well-worn path that has already been made before us, to enter the multi-dimensional and mythic realms of the psychic forest. In these realms, we enter inner territory where a previous path does not (and cannot) exist. We make our own path, as we go. In this phase of the soul’s journey, the distinctive feature of the interior world (as well as the external landscape) is the lack of a clear path before us. The clear way is not already laid out for those who undertake the hero adventure of awakening to what is most essential. Myths of the soul unfold little by little, over time. If we are paying close attention to that unfolding, then each little part of the journey can be remarkable. Joseph Campbell once said, “if a path already exists, it is somebody else’s path”. We have to make our own path as we go, otherwise it is not an adventure of the soul. That would be more like a guided tour. If the path is already laid before us, it may be someone else’s...

As humans, we walk on two feet, And live in two worlds. Michael Meade, Fate & Destiny Joseph Campbell once said, “If you want to help this world, what you will have to teach is how to live in it”. I have thought about that passage often over the years. I’ve come to the conclusion that if I am going to have something meaningful to contribute to this world, I will need to come alive through the mythicworld, first and foremost. Then I need to practice becoming an embodiment of this energy, and live as a bridge between these worlds. It’s often been said that we are living in unprecedented times. This is an inarguable and unignorable fact, when we look at our evolution as a species. If we are paying close attention, we realize that we are living an inevitable reality of being on the unfolding edge of time, as it persistently moves us forward, revealing a future that has never been before. Many people also perceive time to be moving faster than ever before. There is an exponential reality to the technological advances that were made throughout the 20th century, and even more so as we live into the 21st century. The best current scientific estimate being made by NASA is that our universe is 12-14 billion years old, with our solar system being approximately 4.5 billion years old. Our ancestral predecessors are thought to have begun walking on two legs as early as 3.5 million years ago. Homo sapiens evolved around a half million years ago, and Homo sapiens sapiens, the ancestors of all...